New Dawn
by acrophobic
Summary: That had been her Avatar's legacy...he'd ended a century of war and replaced it with a century of rebuilding.


Note: It is two AM. I just watched the entire first season of Avatar for the first time today. This has not been beta'd. This has barely been edited. My brain is broken. Goodnight.

"And she was born just before dawn, you're sure?"

The old woman restrained a sigh. He was a nice young man, really, if a bit too impatient. The young always were. And to be fair, he'd been saddled with a rather stressful job…she really ought to cut him some slack. Usually this task was left to the senior monks, but there were only a few of those yet, and every one of them was absolutely needed at their respective temples.

"Ten and a half months ago, exactly one hour before sunrise. I was there for the entire birth. Age hasn't completely addled my wits yet, boy."

The monk paled. "No, of course not, Waterbender – I never meant to imply anything of the sort – I mean, you're clearly – "

She patted his arm gently. "It's quite all right, dear. Tell me, how are things in the Western Temple?"

The monk, grateful for a change of topic, launched into a description of the temple's latest restoration project (the acolyte's quarters). She leaned on his arm as they made their way through the frozen streets of Yuemura, passing over the graceful ice bridges (she remembered building them, spinning the water up in an elegant arc over the newly formed canals), under the shadows of the watchtowers (her brother's recommendation, though there'd never been a war since). The Southern Tribe capital was not a large city, but it was beautiful and it was permanent and it was _theirs._

That had been her Avatar's legacy. He'd ended a century of war and replaced it with a century of rebuilding. He'd gathered the scattered, tragically few Air Nomad survivors to the temples (and, wonder of wonders, he'd found bison too, she'd never seen Appa so happy) and opened their doors to anyone who wished to come help restore them to their former glory. And the people had come, in ones and twos mostly, but sometimes whole families. From all over the world they'd come, and now the temples rang with the shouts of children and a few groups had even left to take up their nomadic existence once again. And some of them had the dusky skin of her tribe, and some of them had the earth-folk's fierce green eyes, and some, like the boy next to her, had the long straight dark hair of the people she'd once hated more than anything in the world.

The young monk had stopped talking, she realised, perhaps noticing his companion was lost in her own thoughts and hadn't been listening to begin with. They proceeded in silence until they reached the door of her grandson's house.

XxXxXxXxX

She watched as the monk carefully placed the last of the small objects on the cloth roll it had been wrapped in. He'd had a dozen or so such bundles strapped to his back, each one containing a score of simple toys or dolls – all together, they took up a good part of the floor. He'd arranged them three or four deep in a wide circle, taking care they were all easily within a young child's reach.

Finally, he moved back and nodded to her grandson's wife. The young woman stepped forward and carefully set her squirming daughter down in the centre of the toys. Little Tulai's eyes lit up and she crawled forward to examine the strange playthings. She picked up a rattle, seemingly at random, dropped it off to the side and continued along the perimeter of the circle. A wooden monkey joined the rattle, along with some odd trinket the old woman couldn't identify.

The monk grew visibly happier with each toy the child selected. When she finally chose a small wooden turtle and sat down to play with her treasures, he actually sighed in relief and beamed at the girl's slightly shaken mother. "The Avatar is found. Thanks be to the spirits – we won't have to wait another hundred years."

The ancient Waterbender smiled at his awkward joke and left the two of them to discuss the new Avatar's schooling for the next few years, until she was old enough to begin her training in the other elements.

She was mildly surprised to realize that she wasn't really surprised at all. She'd had her suspicions ever since she'd heard of his death (and that had hurt, too, more than she'd thought it would…they'd always figured he'd outlive them all by decades). Now here was her cheerful little great-granddaughter, with her clear grey eyes, who loved creating sprays of water to produce an even bigger mess during bathtime, who even now was burbling and making her clumsy way over to Gran-Gran to show off her new toys.

She picked the girl up and bounced her gently. Tulai shrieked happily and made a grab at her great-grandmother's dangling necklace. The woman chuckled softly.

"Not yet, my light. It will be yours when you're a bit older." The girl smiled at her and (she thought) something flickered deep in those strange, ancient eyes. Her heart gave an odd lurch and a twinge and she wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry.

_Hello, Aang. It's been a while._


End file.
